Chapter - 5

"Eh—Whoa!"

"Eeeeek! He's going to kill someone!"

Though the thing hadn't yet been fully pulled out of his pocket, everyone could understand the implication of having it. The shine peeking out from the man's right pocket caused an uproar. While the people closest to him recoiled, and the contents of the bags they were carrying spilled all around, everyone raced to get away from the intersection. In the middle of that, the young girl who had grabbed onto the man's arm…

"Since you failed to do what you were trying to do, won't you come with me to the police? Something like this would make your mother in the countryside mourn, you know. It'll be fine. As long as you're alive, good fortune will come your way eventually, right!?"

Smiling with a beautiful face that was only sweating just a little, she spoke with a soft voice. She was probably trying to calm the man.

But the man did not accept it.

"You fucking brat!"

"Uwa!"

The man who had been hindered roared with an angry voice, and shook off the girl with all his might. The slender girl was easily heaved away, and fell on her back.

A shadow fell over her. It was the shadow of the knife that the man was swinging down with an extremely upset expression on his face—

Wh-What should I do!?

At that moment, Ikki who was watching the chain of events from within the flow of people fleeing the area hesitated in deciding his next action.

Properly speaking, it was the kind of situation where he shouldn't hesitate, but go in and save the person. But—there was one factor that made Ikki hesitate. It was none other than the girl who had barged into all of this.

No—this was no girl. He didn't misread that charming voice or those pretty features. But the clothes were—Kyomon Academy's boy's uniform.

And he knew that face. He hadn't recognized it at first, but after looking at it carefully, he remembered. After the selection battles ended, his classmate Kagami had shown him a list of this year's Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival representative students. This person's face was in a photo.

Ikki had forgotten the name, but this was a Blazer who was at a level of the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival. In that case—

That kind of person wouldn't barge into this without a plan.

That kind of person wouldn't appear nonchalantly and spout cliche words from a police drama. That kind of person must have some means and ability to take control of the situation. And since he didn't know what kind of ability this boy had, there was a possibility that he could be a hindrance if he intervened. Ikki thought that about the boy.

So I have to leave this situation to him, right?

But as Ikki came to that judgment, the boy with blond hair facing the descending knife—covered his head and yelled out.

"S-Someone save me—!"

You had no plan—!?

While screaming in his mind at the boy's cry for help, Ikki immediately began to move. He didn't have enough time to rush in anymore, but the belongings of the fleeing passengers were scattered all over the ground.

Ikki swung one foot forcefully at a tube of lipstick, aiming to hit the swinging knife.

"Guah!?"

Taking an unexpected impact, the knife flew out of the man's hand and fell to the ground. At the same time, Ikki charged up and struck the man in the face with his fist.

"Gah!"

The man fell face up on the ground with blood flying from his nose in an arc, and he stopped moving. Ikki's fist had rendered the man unconscious with one blow.

To anyone watching, it was probably a truly skillful performance. But…

"Ha… haa… haa… haa…!"

The performer himself was sweating frantically.

Too close…! This person really didn't think before putting himself out there…!

If Ikki hadn't flown to the boy's aid, the boy would undoubtedly have been killed. At that moment, the boy had been defenseless against the knife swinging down on him. To say nothing of martial arts, he hadn't even used a Blazer's magic to protect himself, only panicking, freezing up, huddling up against the blade-wielding opponent. Honestly, the young boy's reckless behavior had been more terrifying than the man who tried to attack people randomly in the street.

"Ikki!"

"Ha… Stella. Can you call the police to arrest this attacker?"

"Y-Yes! I'll do that!"

After asking Stella who had arrived late to go inform the authorities, Ikki turned toward the young boy who was still lying on the ground. Ikki kind of wanted to make a word of complaint, but the boy had done what he did to stop a tragedy. Therefore, no complaint erupted from his throat, and Ikki asked the boy as he extended a hand.

"Are you hurt?"

"…Ah, no. Thank you. You saved me."

The boy gave a sudden smile, and offered his thanks as he took Ikki's hand.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, his eyes grew large as he looked at Ikki's face.

"…Hmm? Is there something wrong?"

"Ah-Ahh! You, are you Ikki Kurogane-kun by any chance!?"

"Err, yes. That's right, but—"

What was the matter? The moment that Ikki answered the strangely excited boy's question—

"Wow! Wow! It's really you It's really you, Ikki-kun!"

And no sooner than the boy got up, he grabbed Ikki in a hug.

"E-Ehhhh!?"

"H-Hey, what are you two doing—!?"

At the unexpected embrace, both Ikki and Stella raised their voices in confusion. But the boy continued to hug Ikki without concern for their surprise.

"I'm so moved! Even though I hoped for it, to meet you by chance like this, I'm really lucky after all!"

As if they were friends meeting again after ten years, the boy was beaming and jumping up and down with his whole body. The blue eyes wavering underneath long eyelashes were spilling tears of deep affection. The boy seemed truly and sincerely happy to meet Ikki.

But because of this, Ikki was in chaos. Why was a boy this happy to meet him?

"Who are… y—"

But before Ikki could ask, Stella was quicker. Forgetting to call the police, she who couldn't endure this any longer rushed over and grabbed the shoulder of the boy with a cute face who was embracing her boyfriend and tore him off with sheer strength. And she stood in front of the boy as if covering Ikki protectively.

"Who do you think you are!? From your clothes you look like a boy, but are you gay!? Are you gay too!? Even though we already have one such character!"

Stella scowled at the boy as if to intimidate him. The boy was astonished at being pushed away suddenly, but immediately understood that he was facing Stella who was Ikki's girlfriend, and sympathized with why she was angry.

"Ahh, I'm sorry, Stella-san. No, I'm not gay. I'm just excited and happy to meet Ikki-kun."

After this explanation, he turned to both of them and introduced himself.

"How do you do? I'm a first-year student at Kyomon Academy, Amane Shinomiya. Like you, I'm a representative at the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, and—I'm a huge fan of the Crownless Sword King!"

After that, Stella and Ikki gave their report to the policemen who came to arrest the attacker, and returned to their original goal of getting something to eat. They entered a hamburger franchise restaurant. All three of them.

The third person was Amane Shinomiya, Ikki's self-proclaimed fan who they had just met. He came because he wanted to treat the two of them for saving him from danger.

"Nnn—♪ It's my first time coming to a place like this, but this potato is delicious, even though it's full of grease that spreads through your stomach and has tons of salt."

"Eating something like this every once in a while is fine by me. But is it really okay for you to treat us?"

Ikki asked that as he sat facing Amane. To the question, Amane nodded with a big smile on his attractively cute face.

"Of course! Ikki-kun, you're a lifesaver, so I have to treat you to McRonalds at least!"

Lifesaver was not overstating it. Practically speaking, if Ikki had not intervened at that time, Amane would've lost his life. Thinking about it from Amane's side, it would probably lead to guilt if he didn't offer something like this.

"…Then I'll accept your kindness."

Sympathizing with this situation, Ikki accepted Amane's goodwill. Unwrapping his burger, Ikki took a bite. Though it was not an especially nutritious meal, the stimulating taste spreading over his tongue was pleasant.

"By the way, Amane-san was it?"

Suddenly, Stella—who had already devoured her own burger and returned her tray some time ago—spoke to Amane.

"Call me Amane. We're the same age, and having a princess put '-san' after my name is a bit embarrassing."

"I see. Then I won't use the honorific, but Amane, you're a representative member of Kyomon, aren't you?"

"Yep. That's true."

"But so far I haven't seen you at the training camp. Where have you been?"

At the question, Amane let out an "aah" and answered.

"It's because I'm not participating in the training camp. Today was the first time I came here, so it's natural that you haven't seen me."

"Is that so? Then you're thinking of participating from today onwards?"

"No. Today is also me coming to bring stuff the participating upperclassmen asked for and then immediately going back."

"How humble. Since you've already taken the effort to come, you should participate too."

"Ahaha. …Well, unlike you, Stella-san, I'm not very interested in the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival. It's only because I have a rare ability, even though I don't have physical strength or knowledge of martial arts, that I was chosen as a representative."

A student who wasn't interested in the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival had been chosen as representative. It was not rare for such a thing to happen in academies that didn't use combat selection like Hagun and Bukyoku. So it wasn't unusual. Amane probably wasn't just saying it to be modest. In that case….

"Then against that attacker, your rare ability should've helped, right?"

Ikki said this to Amane. In response, Amane shook his head a little, and answered.

"…Why do you think that?"

"Just process of elimination. Amane-san, I'm sure you don't have martial arts experienced based on your build and your reaction when the attacker came at you. Despite that, you had unusual timing when you seized that man's hand. Though you don't have a high level of martial arts, it was timing that showed an exceptional reaction speed. If it's not from martial arts, then all that's left is Blazer ability, I think."

At Amane's question, Ikki answered with his own ponderings. When he did so, surprise spread across Amane's face.

"Ahh, as expected of you, Ikki-kun. You were able to see through that. Such insight doesn't differ from the rumors."

It was an expression of the discernment called "shining magic mirror", belonging to the Crownless Sword King. Was Amane glad to see something like this? He stated words of happy admiration.

"But I can't tell you what kind of ability it is. My teacher said that I mustn't tell people of other schools, so I'm sorry."

"Ahh, that's only to be expected, especially for people like us who are fellow representative contenders."

There was nothing to be gained from telling the enemy your own abilities, so Ikki had no real intention of asking to hear it.

"But Amane-kun… if it's not an ability you can use to hold off an opponent, you should be a bit more restrained yourself next time. It's your life at risk, after all."

Indeed, Ikki gave candid advice to Amane from experience. With a serious look, Amane bowed his head in apology.

"Y-Yeah. That's true…. I was so upset I forgot to protect myself…. If you hadn't been nearby, Ikki-kun, what would've happened…? I was really lucky. But—"

"But?"

"But because my luck was good, I got to see you in action, and it was so awesome~♪ You really looked cool, like a hero~♪"

In a complete change from his look of remorse, Amane's face bloomed in a girlish look of happiness. Where could one find such an optimistic person? Ikki's head was starting to hurt a little.

…Well, he's not a bad child, but….

"Oh, that's right."

Suddenly, Amane reached a hand into his bag as if he just remembered something.

"…The truth is, since I knew that Hagun and Kyomon were shaing a training camp this year, I was a little hopeful that I could meet you, Ikki-kun, so I was carrying something for you to autograph. Um… do you mind!?"